


Tick Tock

by bitbyboth



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-07 03:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitbyboth/pseuds/bitbyboth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nero got a lot more than he bargained for when he goes after a demon near Fortuna and somehow ends up in front of Devil May Cry where he finds that nothing is as it should be...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I am here and I come bearing a new DantexNero story! :D I got the idea from reading the first Devil May Cry 3 magna and it demanded to be written! I do not own Dante or Nero they belong to Capcom. Enjoy!

Nero trudged through the wooded area heading for a castle that was just outside of Fortuna. He’d been coming down the path to the building quite a bit recently. The Order had sent him down this way almost three times in one week claiming that there was demonic activity, though the young hunter had seen nothing thus far. He was glad to have the trek however, things at home after the last year or so hadn’t been progressing like he-and obviously Kyrie, thought they should. The two were on a ‘break’ thinking that maybe some time apart would rekindle the spark they thought they’d seen together.  
  
The slayer sighed as he plucked a red apple off a low hanging branch, tossing it in his devil bringer once before snapping a bite. He had stopped wearing the sling while on missions, though he wore it almost any other waking moment.  
  
Nero walked up to the towering, gray, brick building. _‘Hello again.’_ he thought to himself. _‘Just going to search you from top to bottom like I’ve done three other times this week…’_ He stalked forward, not paying much attention to his surroundings.  
  
He felt as if a ton of demonic aura dropped in on him the moment he came within arm’s length of the door. _‘This is what I’m talking about. **Finally!** ’_ a smirk played on his lips as he ripped the door open. Across the room, perched on a rotting wooden chair was a black owl with large red eyes. For a second he stared at it contemplating the likelihood that it was a coincidence that it was there.  
  
He took a step forward and blinked harshly when the creature totally disappeared from his sight. Just ’poof’ without a trace. He heard a screech to his right and grabbed Red Queen, intending to slash in that direction. He was out cold before the blade was unholstered.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

When Nero awoke he had no idea how much time had passed or even what the hell had happened to him. His cheek was pressed against something smooth and cold, his right arm twisted under his body, hiding it from sight his left was bent slightly above his head.  
  
His eyes opened to slits and he immediately snapped them shut again, the light of the setting sun stinging his throbbing head. He pulled his right arm out from under him and used it to shield his eyes as he opened them again.  
  
He carefully looked around. Cracked sidewalks with weeds popping out, old rundown buildings painted with layers of graffiti, the sound of a police car in the distance…wherever he was it sure wasn’t Fortuna. He had no idea where he was. He very carefully stood up and brushed off his clothes. He turned then realizing he was standing next to a set of steps leading up a doorway above which glowed a neon sign proclaiming Devil May Cry.  
  
The name snagged in his memory. Dante…he’d seen him once since the Sanctus incident. The older slayer had said, after some prodding and alcohol, that the kid could look him up under the name Devil May Cry if he ever ’got into some shit.’  
  
Well…he had no idea how he’d gotten here, but he figured at least Dante could give him some directions on how to get home. He made his way up the stairs and looked at the door for a moment wondering if he should knock, or just walk in. He figured the place was a business and opened the door. What he saw…well, surprised him. The place smelled like Dante, pizza and beer, but who he saw was not the Dante he remembered, it had to be his son, but he hadn’t really thought the man in red was old enough to have a son his age.  
  
The other male’s silver hair was slightly longer than Dante’s, with the same frosty blue eyes, and face structure, he was a little more lithe than Dante but his taste in clothes seemed to mirror his father. He was dressed in a red trench, but he wasn’t wearing a shirt underneath, showing off his flat stomach. He was wearing green pants and had his black, unzipped combat boots resting on the desk.  
  
Nero must’ve been staring longer than he thought because the other male cleared his throat and asked: “What do you want?” his eyes raked down Nero’s frame, sizing him up and pausing on his devil bringer.  
  
Nero self-consciously pulled his arm behind him and tugged the sleeve of his jacket down over it.  
  
“Yeah, sorry.”  
  
“If you need help with that arm I’m not sure if there’s much I can do about it. It looks pretty attached.” he said in an aloof manner, grabbing a slice of pizza from a box laying on the desk.  
  
“No, that’s not it. Is Dante here?”  
  
The other male looked at him like he’d just jumped off the loony train. “Yeah, that’d be me, the one and only. Weren’t you the one passed out in front of my shop?”  
“Uhm, yeah.” he said, needing a moment to process the other part of that sentence. Would Dante have named his son Dante? Seemed a little confusing, and he said the one and only…  
  
“Did you drink a little too much or somethin’?”  
  
“No-I don’t drink.” he said, rubbing his forehead with his human hand. What was going on?  
  
Dante started to snack on his pizza waiting for the kid to explain what the hell he was doing here.  
  
“I’m here for a job.” he blurted. He had been toying with the idea of looking up Devil May Cry and working with the older slayer. The Order was running out of missions for him and the ones it did send him on were starting to become like wild goose chases.  
  
Dante’s eyebrows raised, as this had not been the answer he’d been expecting. He swallowed the mouthful of pizza he’d been chewing and licked his lips, leaning back in his chair to think. Jobs had been coming a little more smoothly since the whole Temen-ni-Gru incident, but money was by no means easy to come by with that bitch Lady taking all his profits.  
  
He looked over at the other boy again. He could take missions away from Lady and get back at the ungrateful shrew for him. Unfortunately he had no idea if the kid was any good.  
  
“I would kid, but I think you’re just that, a kid.”  
  
Nero’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Dante even called him a kid when they were the same age! Or at least about the same age-The guy in front of him couldn't have been older than nineteen and Nero was eighteen himself.  
  
“You think I pack these things for show? Come on, I bet I’ll give you a run for your money.” he smirked, revving Red Queen over his shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

Dante lightly smirked. “I like your style kid. Although I hope that arm of yours has upgraded something other than your attitude.” He put his feet on the floor with a ‘thump’ sweeping Ebony and Ivory off the desk as he stood, and holstering them behind his back. He grabbed Rebellion out of the wall and placed the blade on his back.

“I think you may have even underestimated my abilities.” Nero grinned.

“We’ll see then. This probably isn’t the best place to test you though, I have enough holes in the walls. I know a place nearby where we can let loose some chaos though.” he said, strolling towards the door.

Nero made sure to pull his sleeve down over his right hand as they walked out. He was still pretty puzzled as to what had happened to the older slayer…but this was definitely him, same clothes, style, weapons, gait…everything he remembered but in a younger package. He thought back to the owl demon in the castle. It must’ve had something to do with this.

“So where you from?” Dante asked.

“Eh…pretty far away. I won’t bore you with the details.” he replied, not sure how he could explain how he ended up here anyway.

“Mm, so what did you do there?”

“The same thing I’m trying to do here. Hunt demons.”

“I’m guessing that’s how you got that arm then.”

“Yeah. I was defending the city I lived in from them. After I got this though…” he flexed his devil bringer. “They decided they didn’t really want me around.”

The other male nodded in understanding. “People don’t really like things that are different.”

“You’re preaching to the choir.” he stated simply, looking around as he wondered where Dante was taking him. He blinked when red-clad devil hunter stopped leaving them in a deserted area littered with broken bricks and half crumbled walls.

“This work for you?” he asked un-holstering Ebony and Ivory.

“Let’s go to the gunfight.” Nero smirked, pulling out Blue Rose, raising and firing in less than a second. The man in red twisted out of the way but the bullets were so close he almost heard them whizzing past his ear. Ebony and Ivory released a barrage of their own, but Dante was surprised to find that the other teen had already leapt out of the way, as if he had predicted the attack.

Nero quickly holstered his revolver and grabbed Red Queen swinging his blade towards Dante’s legs, the man in red rolled away before the sword could slice him open and got onto one knee, firing at the younger teen again. Nero lunged to the side to avoid the attack, though one struck his right shoulder, he didn’t seem to be bothered too much, he got out of the way of the direct attack and ran forward, blocking the other gunshots from his face by holding up his devil bringer. 

Dante just barely managed to dance back out of the way as Red Queen sliced into the place he’d been standing. As he leapt back however, the blue-clad hunter lashed out his devil arm, grabbing Dante’s ankle, and quickly spinning in a circle, throwing him into one of the crumbling walls effectively destroying it. It took the older male a moment to get his footing and get upright again seeing as the bricks didn’t make very stable footing as he did however he holstered his prized guns and grabbed Rebellion’s hilt. Once he was stable he drove forward with his blade straight out in front of him.

Nero was basking a little in his tiny victory when he saw the older hunter driving towards him. He smirked and held his ground until Dante was close enough before twisting out of the way and smacking the flat side of his blade over the other half-devil’s shoulder blades.

Dante stumbled, trying to turn back around his foot getting twisted on one of the bricks and falling backwards. Once there on his back he felt a foot on his chest and heard Nero’s gun cock.

The man in red blinked before lightly smirking. “Not bad.”

Nero grinned, holstering his revolver, and taking his foot off the older teen’s chest before holding his demonic hand out to help him to his feet. Dante clapped his hand into the one being offered without hesitation.

“What’s your name?” he asked as he was pulled to his feet.

“Nero.”

“You’re hired.”

* * *

Nero was allowed to live in Devil May Cry, Dante giving the younger teenager the spare bedroom. The only problem with said bedroom being that there was no furniture in it. The red-clad devil informed him he’d have to buy the stuff himself, and that he didn’t run a hotel. Dante got half of whatever Nero made for rent, food and company supposedly.

Nero was okay with sleeping on the couch until he could afford a bed, which was definitely going to be his first investment if he was staying for longer than a week, at least that’s what he thought to himself as he laid on the lumpy couch with a hard pillow and a blanket the older teen had tossed down to him from the stairs.

The half-devil lightly sighed to himself as he closed his eyes.

* * *

Nero’s eyes cracked open again when he heard a shrill whining sound. He groaned as he rolled off the couch, his back twanging with discomfort. He looked around, wondering where the hell he was for a moment before his eyes landed on the huge rotary phone on Dante’s desk. He padded over and picked up the receiver.

  


“Um, Devil May Cry.”

“Eva.”

“…Okay.” he blinked, having no clue what the person was talking about.

“There’s a flock of demons congregating by the fountain downtown, there’s a reward so you better get your ass down there before someone else does.”

Nero blinked awake quickly with these words and scanned the desk for a pen-of course the older man wouldn’t have a pen.

“Where at?”

“I told you the fountain downtown.”

“Street address please.” he grumbled impatiently with a roll of his eyes.

The man on the other end rattled off an address that meant nothing to the devil hunter.

“Alright-I’ll be there.” he growled before hanging up the phone.

The hunter quickly slid his feet into his boots, threw his coat on and grabbed his weapons before walking out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, in case you’re wondering my logic on how Nero won that battle-I figured that Dante is a little less experienced and a little cockier, not only that but Nero has the experience of fighting Dante when he’s at his peak. ;) In case you didn’t notice I made a lot of references to their first fights together Dante making a few of the mistakes that Nero made in DMC 4. Until next time!  
> Ja ne!  
> ~Bitbyboth January 7, 2014


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I am an asshole, I did not realize that I had not uploaded this entire story here yet. So I guess I may as well finish since I already have the whole thing written lol, hope you guys like it.

Nero made his way out of Devil May Cry and looked around. Which way should he go? He closed his eyes and listened carefully, trying to hear or sense where the chaos was happening. After a moment he felt he should go to the left and he really didn’t have much to go off of besides his gut instincts so he ran to the left until he heard a strange cawing and a wet tearing sound.

  
He sprinted towards it until he spotted a large red bird with round yellow eyes, a very long tail and gold stones seeming to be imbedded in their wings. It looked like it was dripping blood, as if that was what it was made of. (1)

  
He watched for a moment as the bird swelled up and shrieked before exploding. Nero lifted his devil arm to block the spatter, when he looked up again he was surprised to find two of the birds.

“Well, this seems to be a multiplication problem.” he smirked grabbing Red Queen’s hilt. “I’m not very good with math guys-so let’s stick to subtraction.”

He revved Red Queen and lunged forward slicing the first Blood-goyle cleanly in half. He turned back quickly to admire his handiwork and then realized that there were now three of the creatures one medium sized and two smaller.

“Okay…you did the multiplication thing again…” he muttered, putting Red Queen onto his back and grabbing Blue Rose. “Let’s see how you handle bullets.”

He shot at one of the smaller ones and blinked as it went rigid, turning into stone and falling out of the sky. Nero had an ‘a-ha!’ moment as he grabbed his sword and ran forward smashing the statue with one decisive slice.

He chuckled, stopping abruptly when he heard another caw…and another…and another. He spun quickly on his heel and rolled out of the way as one of the birds dove at him.

He looked around and his blue eyes widened. He was totally surrounded.

He whistled. “I got a lot of work to do.” he said, sheathing Red Queen and twirling Blue Rose out of it’s holster. A few of the blood-goyles screamed and started spinning in circles over the slayer’s head. He shot at them and after a few seconds two of them screamed and fell to the ground, immobilized. The few that hadn’t though, dove towards him and he had to spring out of the way before killing the two he’d managed to petrify.

 _‘This is taking too long.’_ he thought seeing a few more of them had exploded creating even more of the annoying birds. “Hmm…” he spotted their long tails and smirked.

He reached out with his devil bringer and grabbed the nearest blood-goyle by the tail before spinning and smashing the bird into it’s brethren. Upon being brutally smacked together a few of the smaller goyles turned to stone and the bigger ones became dazed. The one in his hand turned into stone after smacking six or seven of the demons. Once it was petrified he smashed it to pieces via a nearby wall before grabbing Red Queen to dispatch the others he knocked down.

Nero continued this tactic seeing as it worked fairly well until there was only one of the blood-goyles left. This one he shot and it fell with a screech being smashed to bits only a second later. 

He looked around and saw the fountain, a strangely shaped thing made of dark stone and adorned with human bodies.

“Well, that’s what seems to be the problem.” he said to himself, walking over and slicing through, destroying the fountain so it would spawn no more demons.

Nero put Red Queen back onto his back and clapped his hands together to get the dust off them, happy that he was only covered in rock dust rather than smelly demon blood.

He frowned when he heard footsteps behind him and whirled around to find a nervous looking man trying to approach him. Nero looked away and tried to hide his arm behind his back.

“Are you Dante?”

“Nah. I work for him though. You the one offering the reward?” he asked, looking up to the man’s eyes.

“Uhm, yes.”

“Well…I’m sort of new at this so I guess just do whatever you’d do for Dante.” he shrugged. He’d really never been paid for exterminating demons and Dante wasn’t exactly here to help him at the moment so he figured he’d just have to wing it.

“Oh…right,” he smiled nervously. “Just wait right here.” he said before taking off.

Nero sighed and folded his arms, wondering if his devil arm had spooked the man or if he was scared of Dante. He shook his head, pausing when he heard a gun cock behind him. He quickly moved to turn and felt a spray of bullets at chest level six or seven bullets hit or slid between his ribs on his right side, making him gasp. 

What he saw was not what he expected. It was a skinny looking girl wearing a white collared shirt, shorts, brown boots and armed to the teeth with firearms. She had short cropped black hair and two mismatched eyes.

He quickly held up his devil arm to block the rest of the attack. She stopped after that looking at him particularly. Nero coughed lightly, trying to hold it back. He looked over the top of his arm and tasted blood in his mouth.

“What the hell!?” he demanded.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“Me? You’re the one who’s shooting first asking questions after. It doesn’t really seem like you care that much.” he said flatly.

“I thought you were someone else…but I’ve never seen you before. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Nero coughed, covering his mouth with his human hand. It came back sticky with crimson.

“Sorry-it’s a bit difficult to answer your questions while my lungs are bleeding.” he spat venomously.

“Maybe I should just kill you then.” she growled.

“My name is Nero. I’m helping Dante out at Devil May Cry.”

“Are you a human or are you a demon?”

“Little of both I guess. I was human, and then I got this,” he held up his devil bringer. “So who the hell are you?”

“Lady. I work with Dante too…sometimes.”

“Well you’ve got one hell of a handshake.” he replied, spitting the blood out of his mouth and licking off his lips.

“Looks like you do too.”

Nero looked at his bringer and flexed it. “Yeah, I guess.”

Lady holstered her guns. “I guess I’ll be seeing you later then Nero.”

“I guess so…” he said watching her leave.

* * *

 

 

Nero got the money for his first job and even Dante seemed impressed that he took the initiative and headed out on his own in a strange city.

He smirked when he saw the kid walk in the door with blood on his clothes.

“How’d ya do kid?”

“Don’t call me kid. And it went all right. There were a ton of these red fucking birds, but I took care of them.”

“What’s the pay?”

“Pretty good.” he answered, handing over half the cash he’d received.

“Good work Nero. Now let’s bandage up those wounds, you’re bleeding all over my floor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) As you may have guessed this is a Blood-goyle from DMC 3
> 
> Wow another whole chapter of fighting! XD Sorry. I swear I’ll try to get to some kind of closeness between them next chapter. ;3 Until next time!  
> Ja ne!


	4. Chapter 4

Nero shed his jacket, hoodie and shirt in the bathroom and frowned at the bullet wounds that were still seeping blood. The ones in the soft tissue would be forced out by his body eventually as they healed. The ones really bothering him were lodged in his ribs.

“Need a hand, kid?”

“Stop calling me that.” he growled.

Dante’s head tilted in confusion when he spotted the bullet wounds. “Wait a sec…didn’t you say they were blood-goyles?”

“Those bird things are what I got paid to take care of. This was something on the side. Some bitch named Lady came up and just started shooting me.” he grumbled.

Dante laughed and Nero glowered dangerously.

“Sorry-sorry. That lady says one hell of a hello though. She shot me in the head the first time I met her…and continues to shoot me in various body parts in our other meetings…”

“That’s fascinating-really. But are you going to give me a hand here or what?”

“Oh yeah, sorry.” he grinned, taking some tweezers out of his medicine cabinet.

“Why do you have-?”

“Trust me on this one, I get impaled with enough irritating, tiny projectiles to warrant owning a pair of these.”

“Okay, whatever. Just hurry up.” he grumbled, placing his demonic hand against the counter so that Dante had access to his right side.

The man in red pushed the tweezers into the first wound and Nero grit his teeth and closed his eyes in pain. He felt the metal close around the chunk of lead. A swift and harsh tug pulled it out of the bone making him grunt and clench his hand around the laminate countertop. 

“Holding up okay?”

“I’m just fine. There’s another next to that one and another in the rib above that.” he said in as level of a tone as he could muster.

Dante dropped the slug into the sink, leaving a trail of red as it rolled. “She can be a bit of a hard ass, but she does have amazing grouping.”

Nero rolled his eyes and the older teen lightly laughed.

“I’m just joking with you kid, lighten up.” he said, plucking out the next bullet.

“Fuck!” Nero hissed through his teeth.

“Hey, if you think that this is bad, try getting impaled by your own sword. Now that stings.”

The younger hunter lightly laughed. “That’s happened to you before?”

“Yeah, just once.”

“That’s pretty funny.” he mumbled, thinking about doing the same thing when he first met the man in red. 

Dante ripped out the last bullet, causing the younger male to growl softly.

“What about you? What’s your worst battle souvenir?” the son of Sparda inquired.

“Well somebody stabbed this once.” he said, flexing his bringer.

“How did you get that thing anyway?”

“Eh…I was fighting some demons outside the city,” he started, grabbing a few of the Band-Aids spread across the counter and starting to slap them over the wounds where the bullets had been removed. “It’s a little fuzzy. My shoulder got hit or something…I dunno.” he shrugged, shaking his head.

“Hmm.” he grunted. “So what are you planning to do with the money you made today?”

“I need a mattress. As nice as it is for you to offer me your couch, that thing has got to be really fucking old.”

Dante barked a laugh in response.

“What about you?”

“Oh well I have enough now to pay the water and electric bills and still have enough left over for some pizza.” he grinned.

“Didn’t you have pizza yesterday?” he asked.

“You can never have too much pizza.” he smirked in response.

“…okay, whatever.” he shrugged, before looking at his devil bringer with a frown.

“What’sa matter?”

“Nothing. I need to go shopping for a few things. You got a car I can use?” he asked, starting to pull his clothes back on.

“Can you drive?”

“Yeah.”

“Knock yourself out, kid. It’s out back.” he stated jerking his thumb towards the back of the shop. Nero nodded, grabbed the keys off Dante’s desk and was gone.

* * *

 

Dante sat at his desk after the kid had left, his feet propped up on said piece of furniture and a magazine over his face, trying to take a nap, and finding sleep not forthcoming. Nero was stuck in his mind like gum on the bottom of his shoe.

But what about the punk made him so special? At least special enough to attract the son of Sparda’s attention? He was certainly physically attractive enough. Yeah, he was some definite eye candy, his snowy hair and fiery blue eyes, pale skin and toned body would probably be enough to drive anyone crazy.

Dante felt his lips curve in a lazy smirk, but damn if he didn’t respect the little punk. The younger teen had walked right into his shop and asked for a job-asked to be tested by the son of Sparda himself for said job and didn’t flinch from the fight. He had some serious balls, and Dante most definitely respected that.

 


	5. Chapter 5

_1 month later…_

  
Amazingly an entire month had passed with Nero living at Devil May Cry. He liked it there now that he was finally settled into it. He had managed enough money to get a comfortable amount of furniture in his bedroom. He seemed to be going on more and more dual missions with Dante at his side, and he was actually enjoying it. While he’d seen the older male fight before, he found that he was continuously learning as he watched the red clad half-devil fight.

  
What he was most surprised about was that he barely missed Fortuna. Of course he missed talking to Kyrie but other than that he had everything he needed and wanted here. He had a solid job, food-even if it was constantly pizza, as well as Dante and Lady’s friendship.

  
Currently the three were playing a game of pool. Nero was teamed with Dante so the son of Sparda would at least have a chance against the brunette. The wager was whoever won got the next mission to come in.

  
Nero leaned on his pool stick and lightly smiled.

  
“What cha smilin’ about kiddo?” Dante asked jovially, throwing his arm around the younger slayer.

  
“Damn it Dante-I swear if you call me kid-or any other variation again I’m going to kick your ass!” he growled, though a slight grin remained on his face. While the Dante from his time had so much more experience and skill that he could whoop Nero pretty well he found that he and Dante from this period were fairly evenly matched and he had fun going all out against the son of Sparda.

  
“Whatever you say, ki-”

  
“Hey!” Lady caught their attention and pointed a finger at them.

“What?” they asked blankly.

“It your turn.” she answered.

Nero couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay Dante, you’re up. Try not to fuck us over too badly.” he teased.

The younger slayer had to stare as he watched Dante lean over the pool table lining up his shot, the muscles on his back rippled plainly in view since Dante didn’t wear his coat in the shop…or a shirt for that matter and Nero got a great view of his ass. 

The younger slayer glanced up and blushed brightly when he saw Lady staring at him with a knowing look on her face.

“Ha! YES!” Dante cheered as he sunk one of the striped balls.

“Hey uh…Dante…” Nero began.

“…We’re solids this round aren’t we?”

“…yeah.”

“Damn it.”

* * *

 

They finished up the round and Nero sunk enough balls and put Lady in a bad enough position by doing so that they won.

“Ha!” Dante high-fived the younger hunter. “Nice moves ki-” Nero shot him a look. “-Nero.”

“Guess that means that you guys get the next mission. So no reason for me to stick around here.” Lady shrugged as she grabbed Katalina Ann and strapped it over her shoulder. She winked at Nero before walking out, making him blush.

“What was that for?” Dante asked skeptically.

“What are you talking about?” Nero asked, embarrassed.

Dante mimicked Lady’s saunter and winked at Nero making him blush further and punch the older slayer in the shoulder.

Dante laughed. “You think Lady’s got the hots for you kid?”

“No! I mean-even if she did it’s not like I’d be inte-I mean she’s pretty and everything but-agh!” he decided to shut up before he dug himself in any deeper.

Unfortunately Dante’s eyes started to glimmer and he wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by. “You wouldn’t be interested, hmm? Why’s that?”

“None of your business!” he said, wearing a blush that could put a tomato to shame.

“You saying-?” he was cut off as the phone started to ring. “Looks like you’re saved by the bell.” he slammed his fist against the desk and caught the phone out of the air.

“You are such a showoff.” Nero said, rolling his eyes as Dante talked to the client. Silently he was grateful that the phone rang otherwise he was sure he would’ve just made an ass of himself. He’d liked Dante after the whole ordeal with the Savior, but he hadn’t realized he was sexually attracted to him until after he’d broken up with Kyrie. 

“Hey kid! Hello!?” Dante said loudly, snapping his fingers in front of the younger male’s face. “Earth to Nero.”

“Knock it off!” he growled.

“We have a job, so get your gear and let’s go.”

“What is it?” the younger teen inquired picking up his weapons.

“Spider creature.”

“Like Arachne?” (1)

“Bigger.” he replied, eyes glowing with excitement.

“Where at?”

“The park downtown.”

“I’ll race you there.” Nero grinned.

* * *

 

The two arrived at roughly the same time; Nero just shortly behind the older hunter. Once there they saw a large, hairy, black spider feasting on the spider web wrapped remains of a human.

“Sorry to interrupt, but you have another appointment.” Dante grinned, retrieving Rebellion from his back and pointing it at the spider.

Wolfe looked up, displeased that his meal had been interrupted. He hissed loudly lifting his chelicerae to expose his fangs in rage(2). 

Dante tended to like to make the monsters come to him and like the many others that had fallen before him, Wolfe decided on the same response and charged straight forward with his fangs exposed, hoping to sink them into the son of Sparda.

Nero dove to the side but Dante stood still, smirk in place, until Wolfe reached him. Fangs drove towards him and Dante used his sword to block the dripping appendages. The spider made a strange growling sound as it jerked back and quickly spun around, it’s abdomen smacking into the red clad devil knocking him into a nearby tree.

Nero had been sneaking around to attack the spider from the side when he heard the dull thwacking sound of skull hitting bark and looked over to find his partner dazed against a tree. Rebellion sat only a few inches from his hand. Nero lunged towards the spider but was knocked away by one of it’s large legs.

Dante started to open his eyes and felt some kind of weight starting to press against his chest, upon looking down he saw that he was starting to be encased in webbing. He struggled as Wolfe turned back towards him but it was no use the webbing seemed as strong as steel cables.

Nero quickly rolled to his feet running towards the trapped man. His heart shuddered in his chest when he saw Wolfe lunge towards the man in red.

“No! Dante!” he gasped, he jerked Blue Rose out of her holster and jumped in front of Dante shooting three consecutive shots into the demon’s face, hoping to keep himself from getting chomped on. He was lucky that he’d aimed for Wolfe’s eyes. A few of his bullets struck true and the spider screamed and reared back away from them.

Nero felt anger rush through his body and he shot forward. He grabbed one of the spider’s legs with his ghostly devil arm and yanked backwards, causing the demon to topple onto it’s back, struggling wildly to right itself. The slayer immediately seized Red Queen and hit the throttle making the blade ignite before slashing through Wolfe’s abdomen.

The spider screamed as he was burned and cut open.

Dante was still struggling in the spider silk, but he was woven to the tree from his shoulders down to his knees, he had no way to manipulate the edges of the sticky stuff. He would just have to look out for the kid where he was.

Nero hacked, slashed and incinerated all of the vital organs he could get to in the spider’s soft abdomen. Wolfe managed to get himself turned over and snapped for the younger devil, fangs glistening with poison. Nero grabbed said fang with his devil bringer before it could impale him anywhere. He yanked the chelicerae forward and brought Red Queen down, slicing it off. Wolfe screamed, and the devil slayer threw the useless appendage over his shoulder, before giving a cry of his own as he drove his flaming sword into the creature’s head, via one of it’s eyes. Once there he revved the blade one more time, making sure that when the thing was down it wasn’t getting back up again.  
Wolfe went limp and Nero panted over his body before yanking out his sword and flicking the blood off it as he turned towards Dante.

The older male whistled, “Great show kid, but can ya get me off this tree?”

Nero walked over, his heart was still pounding in his chest. He placed his still red hot blade onto his back and picked up Rebellion, starting to cut the older man loose.

“Why’s your heart beating so fast kid? You totally handled that guy.” Dante chirped.

“Damn it Dante! You’re such an idiot!” he growled instead, he’d been worried-terrified that the older male had been about to die, but he’d rather yell at him than admit it. “That thing was like a semi doing a U-turn and you didn’t even try to dodge! Did you think it wouldn’t hurt!? That thing had a huge ass!” 

Dante smirked. “Aw kid, were you worried about me?”

“Will you stop calling me kid!?” he grumbled, managing to get the man in red cut loose. 

Dante continued to grin as he brushed some of the webs off him. “I didn’t know you cared so much kid!”

“I don-Dante!” he protested as the older male hugged him and wouldn’t let go. Nero rolled his eyes and pat the other man’s shoulder. “Okay, fine, you can let go of me now.”  
Dante chuckled nervously as he tried to pull away.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” the younger sighed. Apparently the webs had made Dante’s coat sticky enough to hold them together. “How are we gonna get home?”

“That is a very good question…” Dante mumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Arachne are the spider demons in DMC3 We’re assuming Nero has seen some in the last month ;)  
> (2) Okay, spider anatomy time. The chelicerae are those little fang like appendages in front of a spider’s mouth, they often have needle like appendages on the end, that inject poison.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you guys aren’t too confused, this isn’t quite like I usually start my stories so I hope it doesn’t put you off. I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter of Tick Tock ;3 review please! Until next time!  
> Ja ne!


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